Google Ad Grants Changes Policy

It’s a relatively little-known fact, even amongst PPC experts, that Google offers charities in a number of countries, including the UK, a credit of up to $10,000 per month for advertising. Around 35,000 non-profit organisations worldwide take advantage of the scheme. The scheme also features a recently launched programme called Grants Pro for charities with more than $10,000 a month of advertising.

The changes coming to Google AdGrant

Despite the relatively low profile, there are a number of changes coming to the Google Ad Grant service in 2018, these include:

The $2 bid cap is being lifted for Ad Grant campaigns using the maximise conversions bid strategy.

Accounts to maintain a minimum 5 percent click-through rate (CTR) Although this is a major change Google suggests that this is lower than the average CTR for the programme. Although specialists in the market suggest that many accounts taking part in the programme have a 1.5 to 4 percent click-through

Accounts will be required to remove low-quality keywords. The keywords must have quality scores of 2 or higher

Non-profits cannot buy branded keywords they don’t own.

Campaigns must have at least two ad groups with at least two ads running in each.

Accounts also must have at least two sitelink extensions active.

Accounts must have geotargeting.

Most single-word keywords are prohibited – This forces the grant from Google to be used for good quality keywords rather than on generic terms where they are less likely to perform well.

The original deadline for compliance with the new rules was the 1st January 2018. However, following a raft of negative feedback from programme users regarding the 17 day notice period of the change, Google has now advised that it will start sending non-compliance notices at the start of 2018 rather than beginning the process of suspending accounts at the dawn of the new year. Deactivated accounts can still call Google support for reinstatement after making changes.